After famously criticizing Gravity, the astrophysicist — and host of Fox’s COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey — doesn’t know if he’ll ever publicly fact-check a film’s science again.Praising a film’s science, however, he can do.

Gravity’s Alfonso Cuarón and 12 Years a Slave’s Steve McQueen could be first Latino or black Best Director winner in Oscar history, respectively — which would be a huge deal for an industry that has been sorely lacking in diversity. UPDATE: Cuarón won! History was made!

In the Academy Awards’ 86-year history, only eight sci-fi films have been nominated for Best Picture, and none have won. But Gravity could break that losing streak, proving to Hollywood that the genre is worth taking seriously.